South Shore Fury at Baker’s compressor approval

The confluence of climate concern and NIMBY environmental concerns (not a bad thing) may prove to be the political force that puts an end to fossil fuel infrastructure buildout in Massachusetts for good.

To do this, the study argues, all fossil fuel infrastructure — from power plants, pipelines, and industrial facilities to vehicles, ships, and planes — would need to be replaced with zero-carbon alternatives at the end of their lifetimes. Delaying this phase-out until 2030 reduces below 50 percent the likelihood that the world could stay under 1.5 degrees C of warming, the study’s authors wrote.

Furthermore, note the broad, deep and bipartisan reaction to the Baker administration’s final approval of the gas compressor in Weymouth: Pure, white-hot outrage.

[Hull State Rep.] Meschino continued, “I mean really, I understand. And what I understand and they didn’t want to hear but I told them was that I was completely appalled that in Massachusetts, that the DEP, the agency that should be looking out for us – you know governor’s administrations come and go, state representatives and senators, we come and go – DEP should be the ones with the strength of their convictions to look out for us and they failed yesterday.”

or Rep. Mark Cusack:

“It’s beyond idiotic what the Baker administration is allowing to happen here.”

Baker himself seems to recognize how unpopular this is, couching the news in reluctant terms: “Our hands were tied.” I don’t have the technical knowledge to know whether this is true. But rules change; laws change in reaction to public input.

I hope that both South Shore citizens and anyone else who’s watching put two and two together, and we can work on making more robust our alternatives to gas — to making this kind of conflict unnecessary. Fossil fuels are no good, neither in the backyard nor anywhere.